History of Embalming. Gannal Jean-Nicolas
some of them four centuries old. They were all habited in the costume of the period, and appeared to have died at an advanced age. These are natural mummies, or the result of simple desiccation, the skin resembling leather. It is probable that we may refer to similar causes, those interesting subjects discovered three or four years ago, in a cave of the church of St. Thomas, at Strasburg, viz., the mummified bodies of the Count de Naussau (
The climate and soil of Egypt have been equally efficient in preserving vegetable life. The French naturalists who accompanied the army to Egypt, sent home fruits, living seeds, and other portions of twenty different plants, including the common wheat and onion of the present day – as was proved by the germination of the seeds and roots in Europe. —
8
This atmosphere, we have reason to believe, consists of the vapour of oil of turpentine. We examined some of these specimens, which, after a simple injection with the solution of the acetate of alumine, were exposed to a current of air, and found them as hard as horn and somewhat distorted. —
9
The reverend Father Kircher in his chapter on mummies, thinks that these bodies do not merit the name; here is what he says in his chapter iii, §. 2. “But these bodies, dried and preserved in the sands of Lybia, should not receive the name of
10
A sort of tinder made of agaric. —
11
Early in September, 1833, I had an opportunity of inspecting the contents of the morgue of Saint Bernard. Among the group of bodies of every age and sex, we were particularly struck with two figures, one, that of a man, whose countenance was horridly contorted by the act of desiccation; each limb, and every muscle of the body, had assumed the expression of a wretch in purgatory. The other was that of a mother holding her infant to her bosom, the latter, with an imploring expression, looking up to the face of the mother, whom it appeared to have survived some time, as is generally the case when mother and child are frozen together – a greater power of forming animal heat existing in children. —
12
The following is the passage of P. Kircher, of which we gave only a few passages in our citation.
“Est in Transpilana Africæ regione, desertum ingens sabuli, arenarumque cumulis in immensum exporrectum, unde et sabulosi maris non immerito nomen obtinuit; hæ siquidem arenæ ventis concitatæ tam sævas subinde tempestates movent, ut arenis in clivos aggestis, turbinum violentia, et jumenta et viatores una cum mercibus suis, nulla evadendi spe relicta, vivos sepiliant. Refert Pomponius Mela de rupe qua dam in hoc deserto existente, austro consecrata, quæ simul atque vel manu tacta fuerit, austro mox provocato, Sævissimas procellas moveat, sabulo in tantum intumescente, ut pelagus undarum vorticibus, fluctuumque æstibus concitatum videraqueat. Hanc rupem dum olim sylli inconsultius adeunt sive occultiori naturæ impetu, sive magicis incantationum præstigiis, vento mox exoriente, et sabulosos cogente montes, ad unum omnes extincti ferunter. Est et in hoc deserto, ammonium oraculum et serapium, sphyngesque ingentes quarum aleæ usque ad caput, aleæ ex dimidio arena obrutæ, strabone teste, spectantur. Hoc itaque celeberrimum oraculum consulturus olim Alexander Magnus, dum pleno aleæ itineri se accingit, ad illud quidem incolumis pervenit, sed quos milites ex suo exercita non sabulosi pelagi turbines, hos æstus, sitisque confecisse traditur. Sed ut unde digressus revertar, in hoc sabuloso deserto dicunt non nulli mumias solius naturæ industria confici; dum aiunt, viatorum deserti tempestatibus extinctorum corpora tum solis tunc ferventissimæ hugus arenæ pinguioris virtute, longo tempore siccata, tostaque, in hunc statum degenerare. Sed tametsi subinde, in hoc Lybiæ deserto hugusmodi a sole exsiccata corpora reperiantur, illa tamen minime mumiæ discendæ sunt.”
13
It is not improbable that the use of these gummy bandages gave origin to the new and improved method of bandaging fractured limbs – the bandages being first soaked in a solution of gum Arabic, or in a preparation of starch, called dextrine. —